Suggested Subjects To Review Before You Begin
Brief Introduction to the History of Ancient Greece
Greek Mythology Overview : 3 Generations of Gods, Heros, Monsters, 9 Muses and the 12 Labors of Hercules
Maps of Ancient Greece
The Ancient Olympics
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Introduction and Summary of Ancient Greek Literature

Important Terminology
Comedy - A play of humorous character typically with a happy ending.
Didactic Poem - A poem that instructs or moralizes (sometimes excessively).
Epic Poem - A long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds.
Epigram - A short satirical poem with a witty ending.
Fable - a short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects.
Hymn - A song or ode in praise of one of the mythological gods.
Idyll - A short poem usually describing pleasant pastoral scenes or events.
Lyric Poem - A short poem of songlike quality.
Metaphor - Implied comparison achieved through a figurative use of words.
Meter - The structure of poetic lines by the number and rhythm of accented syllables.
New Comedy - 4th century BC comedies based on contemporary bourgeois life
Ode - A lyric poem of complex stanzaic structure that expresses deep feeling.
Old Comedy - A 5th century BC comedies with biting personal and political satire.
Philosophy - The rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge and conduct.
Poetry - A type of literature that is written in meter; may or may not rhyme.
Prose - Ordinary written or spoken language that has no meter.
Satire - A poem in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.
Tragedy - A play about flawed heroes and a serious/somber subject.
Verse - One line of poetry.

Homer (circa 800 BC to circa 750 BC)
Summary: Believed by the ancient Greeks, and later the Romans, as the greatest author ever.
Biography
Iliad - The epic poem of Achilles and the Trojan War.
Odyssey - Odysseus's epic 10-year struggle to return to Ithica from the Trojan War.

Hesiod (circa 700 BC)
Summary: First chronicler of Greek mythology and the mythic five ages of man.
Biography
Theogony - Epic description of the three generations of gods and important others in Greek mythology.
Works and Days - Epic account of ancient rural life and the five ages of man.

Sappho (circa 630 BC to circa 570 BC)
Summary: The most famous female lyric poet of ancient Greece.
Biography
Hymn to Aphrodite and other Lyric Poems

Æsop (circa 620 BC to circa 560 BC)
Summary: The greatest fabulist (author of fables) of ancient Greece.
Biography
Fables

Aeschylus (525 BC to 456 BC)
Summary: Earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays are not entirely lost; father of tragic drama.
Biography
The Oresteia Trilogy
   Agamemnon
   Choephoroe (The Libation-Bearers)
   The Eumenides (The Furies)
Prometheus Bound

Pindar (circa 518 to circa 438 BC)
Ancient Greece's greatest lyric poet, writer of choral odes celebrating Olympic (and other sporting) victories.
Biography
The Extant Odes of Pinda

Sophocles (circa 496 BC to 406 BC)
Summary: 2nd of the three great ancient Greek tragedians; won the most Festival of Dionysus 1st prizes.
Biography
Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex)
Oedipus at Colonus
Antigone

Euripides (circa 485 BC to 406 BC)
Summary: Last of the three great ancient Greek tragedians; reshaped style of traditional Greek tragedies.
Biography
Alcestis
Medea
The Bacchae

Herodotus (484 BC to circa 425 BC)
Summary: Dorian Greek historian called the "The Father of History".
Biography
The Histories

Thucydides (circa 460 BC to circa 400 BC)
Summary: Historian who wrote the first account of scientific history (no intervention from the mythic gods).
Biography
History of the Peloponnesian War

Hippocrates (circa 460 BC to circa 370 BC)
Summary: The father of medicine.
Biography
The Hippocratic Oath

Aristophanes (circa 448 BC to circa 388 BC)
Summary: The most famous writer of Old Comedy; satirized the prominent Athenians of the day.
Biography
The Clouds
Lysistrata
The Frogs

Plato (circa 427 BC to 347 BC)
Summary: Philosopher, chronicler of Socrates, Aristotle's teacher and founder of the famed Athens Academy.
Biography
The Apology - Plato's version of Socrates' defense speach when he was on trial.
The Republic - A Socratic dialog on political theory.
Phædo - A philosophical account of the last day of Socrates' life.
Crito - A dialog between Socrates and his friend Crito regarding justice, injustice and social contract.

Xenophon (427 BC to 355 BC)
Summary: Famous for documenting the history of his day and the saying of Socrates.
Biography
Anabasis - A story of 10,000 Greek mercenaries' expedition to Persia to aid Cyrus the Younger.
Memorabilia - The lengthiest and most famous of Xenophon's Socratic writings. 
 
Aristotle (384 BC to 322 BC)
Summary: One of the most influential ancient Greek philosophers; teacher of Alexander the Great.
Biography
Most Prominent Works
   Catagories
   Physics
   On Interpretation
   Posterior Analytics
   On the Soul
   Metaphysics
   Nicomachean Ethics
   Politics
   Poetics
Summary of the Complete Works of Aristotle

Demosthenes (circa 384 BC to 322 BC)
Summary: Greatest orator and speech writer of the Classical Period.
Biography
Surviving Orations and Prologues

Menander (342 BC to 291 BC)
Summary: Leading writer of New Comedy.
Biography
Dyskolos (The Grouch) - The only surviving complete example of Greek New Comedy

Euclid (circa 330 BC to circa 275 BC)
Summary: Father of geometry and number theory.
Biography
The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements

Theocritus (circa 310 BC to circa 250 BC)
Summary: Creator of Idyllic Poetry (also known as Bucolic Poetry).
Biography
Surviving Idylls

Callimachus (circa 305 BC to circa 240 BC)
Summary: Famed Hellenistic writer of short poetry and critic of epics; catalogued the Library of Alexandria.
Biography
Surviving Hymns, Epigrams and Select Fragments

Apollonius (circa 246 BC circa 190 BC)
Summary: Leading Hellenistic epic poet; director of the Library of Alexandria.
Biography
Argonautica (Jason and the Argonauts)